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Fountain vs River - What's the difference?

fountain | river |

As a noun fountain

is (label) a spring, natural source of water.

As a verb fountain

is to flow or gush as if from a fountain.

As a proper noun river is

.

fountain

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (label) A spring, natural source of water.
  • An artificial, usually ornamental, water feature (usually in a garden or public place) consisting of one or more streams of water originating from a statue or other structure.
  • The structure from which an artificial fountain can issue.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2
  • , passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain , and he fled away with a cameo note.}}
  • A reservoir from which liquid can be drawn.
  • A source, origin of a flow (e.g. of favors, of knowledge).
  • A juggling pattern typically done with an even number of props where each prop is caught by the same hand that thows it.
  • (label) A roundel barry wavy argent and azure.
  • (label) A soda fountain.
  • Synonyms

    * fount * wellspring

    Derived terms

    * fountainlet * fountain pen * fountainhead * drinking fountain * soda fountain * water fountain

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow or gush as if from a fountain.
  • * (Tom Reamy), Blind Voices
  • The fireflies swept toward him from all directions, in streams and rivers and currents of light, a vortex a hundred yards across, spiraling into the brighter center. They met over his supine body like ocean breakers, cascading, fountaining into the air.

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    river

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, ending at an ocean or in an inland sea.
  • * 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
  • By the side of the river' he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the ' river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers , washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.}}
  • Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
  • (poker) The last card dealt in a hand.
  • Derived terms
    * cry someone a river * riverbank * riverbed * river basin * river bed * river birch * river blindness * riverboat/river boat * river bottom * river boulder * river dolphin * river duck * riverfront * river hog * river horse * riverine * river lamprey * river limper * river mouth * river otter * river pear * river prawn * river runner * river shad * riverside * riverward * riverway * sell down the river * submarine river * up the river * (river)
    See also
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (poker) To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.
  • Johnny rivered me by drawing that ace of spades.

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who rives or splits.
  • References

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    Statistics

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